The 28 Tails the War Left Behind
by basho
Summary: After the fighting in the Fourth Great Shinobi War comes to an end, Naruto realises that the war itself has yet to end. Join him as he fights for the end of hatred, starting with the hatred inside the seven soon-to-coalesce Tailed Beasts.
1. Chapter 1: Departure

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, it wouldn't be FANfiction, now would it? Seriously, are these things actually required? _

Setting: Three months after the war has been won, the Ninja World is on the mend. Neji is dead, Sasuke left to hunt down the Orochimaru he revived, and Sai has rejoined Anbu and isn't around much. The remaining Leaf 10 have been meeting weekly at their favorite restaurants to stay in touch with and support each other. Before one such meeting, Naruto is meeting with Tsunade over delicate matters…

* * *

As the sun was beginning to set and the paperwork finally came to an end, Lady Tsunade decided it was time to break out the night's sake bottle. However, as soon as she opened the drawer for it a knock came on her door. It opened, and an Anbu guard stepped in. "Naruto Uzumaki is requesting an audience, Lady Fifth."

"Send him in." Tsunade was utterly baffled that Naruto was following protocol, and began to brace herself for grave news.

"Granny… I need a long term recon mission to the Land of Whirlpools, followed by an even longer term alliance building mission," stated an uncharacteristically solemn Naruto.

"Oh? Why would that be?" Tsunade fixed her favorite subordinate with a calculating glare.

"Kurama and I were talking, and… we're afraid of what could happen in the next couple of years. I need to go to the old Uzumaki manor and learn any of their clan sealing techniques When we destroyed the Ten Tails and its Gedo Statue, Kurama felt uneasy about it. He feels like instead of the normal ten or more years it will take for the seven trapped Tailed Beasts to reform, they're going to start reforming in little more than a year. With Kurama's and my chakra and the Uzumaki sealing abilities, I would like to recapture the Tailed Beasts before they can harm anyone and help choose partners for them."

Momentarily stunned, Tsunade began processing the information. She had been far too busy helping maintaining the peace that the end of the war and the continued Shinobi Alliance had brought to consider the fates of the seven loose Tailed Beasts, and had not yet imagined the devastation that the seven rematerializing at roughly the same time could possibly cause. However… while Naruto was indeed the best possible candidate for both recovering any information left in the ruins of the Uzumaki compound and resealing the Tailed Beasts, she was hesitant to let her best ninja go for what could be more than a year.

"Naruto, while I understand why this could be so important to you, I can't afford to let you go for that long. The Leaf needs you here, not searching buildings razed decades ago or off who knows where making new Jinchuriki."

The young blonde's eyes blazed a bit at the last word, but he quickly reigned in his anger. "Not Jinchuriki. Partners. The Tailed Beasts aren't the monsters of hate that need to be hidden away and feared, Kurama and Gyuki have proven that. All they need is someone willing to befriend them and-" Suddenly, Naruto had a mental image of a VERY irritated fox.

**_"Brat, one more mushy word from your mouth and I won't help you in this mad quest of yours."_**_ Kurama rumbled from Naruto's psyche._

_"Heh… Sorry, buddy, but you know it's true. If it weren't for me trying so hard to help you, you'd still be just an angry fuzzball of red chakra. Now, you're even more of a hero than me!"_

Naruto beamed at his foxy friend, and pulled himself back to the present, giving a light cough to cover for his pause. "Well, regardless, you know the only other person even halfway qualified for the second mission in the whole world is Octopops. Do you REALLY want him picking out people to give the ability to level a country in seconds to? As for the first… I would like to learn more about my mother, if at all possible. I know she was young when the Uzumakis were attacked, but… just one keepsake would mean the world to me." He fixed Tsunade with a pleading look, hoping she would allow him to go.

With a defeated sigh, Tsunade lamented, "Even if I wanted to, I know I wouldn't be able to stop you from leaving to do recon in the Land of Whirlpools. As a Sage, you have free reign to leave the village for any reason you wish so long as it does not hurt the village. However… I cannot approve your request for finding the Tailed Beasts 'partners'." Naruto neared another outburst when she raised her hand to silence him. "I do not tell you this because I don't think you should go, I say it because it's out of my hands. That is not a matter for the Leaf to decide…" Naruto's face fell a little, and Tsunade nearly let out a chuckle at how hard she could see he was focusing to come up with a way to let him go. "…but… I will be able to call a Five Kage Summit, where I can bring forth your plans. I will call for the summit to be exactly seven months from today, during which time I fully expect you to work out every facet of your plans, down to which country gets which Tailed Beast. In addition, I wish for you to keep both of your ideas to yourself, only telling those who you both trust fully AND require their help of. Understood?"

Naruto nearly leaped over her desk to give Tsunade a hug, thanking her profusely. "I won't let you down, Granny Tsunade! I'll get everything taken care of. Believe it!" Chuckling at his antics, Tsunade shooed him away.

"Leave whenever you're ready, Naruto. However, I don't want any of your friends storming in here a day or two from now demanding to know where you are. Please make sure they all know that you'll be gone for a while, but the examination of the old Uzumaki compound should not need to be shared. The fewer people that know you're headed there, the better. I would rather you not accidentally destroy anything precious because you were forced to fight."

"You got it, Granny!" Naruto bolted out of the office, headed straight for Ichiraku's as he realized he was late for this week's gathering.

Tsunade finally had the chance to open her sake and drank deeply from the bottle, ignoring her saucer that was next to it. "These next few months are going to be quiet without that brat around, that's for sure."

* * *

As Naruto arrived for this week's gathering of the Leaf Ten, he realized that he was by far the latest. Everyone had already ordered and were happily slurping away at their ramen, chatting lightly. As always, Hinata was the first to see Naruto jogging up to them.

"Hi, N-Naruto." She blushed lightly at her stammer, which deepened significantly at the bright smile he gave her.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. I was off getting a top-secret mission from the Granny!" he happily proclaimed. "Old man, start me off with five bowls of miso with extra extra pork, I think I'll go on the light side tonight."

Chuckling at Naruto's definition of eating light with his ramen, Teuchi busied himself with the requested foods.

"Naruto… the point of a secret mission is for it to remain secret. How is that going to happen if you're blurting you have it out to the world?" Shikamaru grumbled, then mumbled under his breathe about how troublesome Naruto was.

"Well, I figured I should tell you guys since it's possible I may not get back for seven months." Naruto commented offhandedly. Many of his friends gaped at him for that, and Lee proclaimed,

"Seven whole months? That is a most unbearable duration to go without our good friend Naruto!"

"Yeah, that's a rough post man. What is keeping you away for that long?" Kiba added.

Sakura quickly rebuked him with a "friendly" punch to the back of the head. "He already said it was top secret, dolt. Pay some attention!" Grumbling, Kiba pulled his face out of his ramen bowl and cleaned himself off.

Naruto chucked and asked, "So, anything interesting happen to you guys this week?"

* * *

As the night progressed, the members of the Leaf Ten remaining at Ichiraku's began to dwindle. Tenten and Lee left first, with him escorting her as he has since Neji's death. If Naruto didn't know better he would say there was something more than friendly between them, but the look in Tenten's eyes stated that she was not ready to let go of Neji. Soon after, Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji headed to their respective clan homes. Shino was then forced to take a somehow drunken Kiba (he swears Ayame spiked his ramen, but nobody believed him) home, leaving Naruto with Sakura and Hinata.

Finally, Sakura asked the question she nearly knocked Kiba out earlier for asking. "Naruto… what CAN you tell us about this mission of yours? When are you leaving? Who is going with you?"

"Sorry, Sakura, I really can't say anything beyond it's important to both me and the Five Great Nations. I'm leaving tomorrow, and it'll just be Kurama and I." Lightly snorting in laughter at the last bit, Sakura then excused herself as she had an early shift at the hospital the next day. Realizing that she had been left alone with Naruto, Hinata blushed and hurriedly attempted to excuse herself. However…

"Hinata, would you mind if I walked you home? There's something I've been wanting to ask you." Unable to give more than a squeaking yes, Hinata cursed her timid disposition. Naruto carried the conversation about trivial things most of the way to the Hyuuga compound, but when it got within sight he sat down on a bench and gestured for her to join him. Feeling a sense of dread wash over her, Hinata hesitantly obeyed.

With a slightly faraway expression, Naruto asked, "Hinata, can you make me a quick promise not to run away or faint or anything until you've heard me out?" Seeing the look of fear in her eyes as he said that, he hastily added, "It isn't anything bad, I promise. I just don't know if I can say what I want to right." When he gave a timid nod, he launched straight into what he needed to say.

"I have something I've wanted to talk to you about for months now, but I've never found the right words to say it without it sounding off. I'm sick of debating it, though, and I need to get it off my chest. First… what you told me during the fight with Pain… Do you still mean it?"

Fighting to keep her head up and keep the promise to hear him out, she tried her best to clearly, albeit quietly, state the truth. "Y-yes, Naruto, every word I said then holds true now…"

Smiling lightly, Naruto continued. "Hinata, I will be honest with you. That was the first time anyone had ever told me…" Naruto struggled to recite the three simple words that he has only been told three times, but the phrase felt like too much. "…those three words. At the time, they had me almost as confused as they did happy. To make things worse, Sakura told me almost the same as you did less than a month later, but I doubted her sincerity. Then, when Obito started the war I lost all of my ability and time to think of anything personal. When we finally ended the war, there was just too much going on and things still aren't back to normal yet. I still am getting over meeting my mother, fighting alongside my father, and coming to terms with all the lives that were lost. Now that everything is finally settling down, I have to leave for this crazy long mission and I won't see you for at least a few months, with… please don't tell anyone, but with a potentially longer and beyond S Rank mission following it." Hinata gasped, but didn't react further. She knew that Naruto, being the strongest ninja ever to live in her eyes, would be getting missions of that difficulty constantly simply because he was the only one who could handle them. Naruto then looked straight into her eyes… "I am not so selfish as to ask for you to wait for me, but… When I get back… if you're interested that is, I mean… would you… uh…"

Quietly giggling to herself at how the man who stood fearlessly in front of the most powerful enemies imaginable was stammering worse than herself on a bad day, Hinata shyly asked, "Naruto Uzumaki, are you asking me for a date?"

"Er… if you want to, that is, I… yeah, uh, I am." Naruto blushed deeply, wondering why he was having such a hard time with this. After all, he never had a hard time bugging Sakura for a date. There was just something… different, though, about asking Hinata out.

"I would love to go on a date with you, Naruto." Hinata murmured, and gave him a very brief hug. Of course, having not thought far enough ahead to after the hug she immediately blushed a striking tomato red and let go before he had a chance to react.

Scratching the back of his head, Naruto smiled and promised that he would do all he could to return before the seven month expiration of his mission, but wasn't sure if it was entirely possible. She just smiled and said it was okay, that she wouldn't mind waiting so long as it happened. After escorting her the rest of the way home, Naruto made it halfway to his apartment before shouting out in glee (waking up all in the vicinity) "I HAVE A DATE WITH HINATA!" in a surprisingly loud and gleeful tone.

Of course, at that time Hiashi Hyuga was quietly bidding his daughter goodnight outside of her apartment. Upon hearing the declaration, Hinata was back to her tomato red blushing state and squeaked out a "I guess N-Naruto is looking forward t-to it," in response to her father's questioning glare. The clan head just turned around before smiling and walked off, unintentionally amused at the situation.

* * *

Naruto's trip to the Land of Whirlpools was nigh on painfully slow for him. While he recognized the necessity of arriving quickly, he knew that using any of his techniques not available to regular ninja would send out telling chakra signatures to any sensory ninja and he could not afford to be followed. It took him the better part of a week before he was finally at the coast closest to his target island, and from there he chose to disguise himself as a feeble old man claiming he only wanted to visit what was left of the Hidden Eddy Village one final time before his passing. As such, he found it easy to secure a boat small enough to navigate while still easy enough to use for his elderly disguise to remain believable. As he set out, he steeled himself for what was yet to come.

Based on the information he had gathered, his clan's ancestral home was razed overnight and only few had escaped. Naruto prayed that in the time following the destruction, someone had come to bury the dead and mark the graves. He wasn't entirely sure he could handle the corpses if nobody had, for each body he could find was likely to be a cousin, an aunt, an uncle, a grandparent…

**_"Kid,"_**_ Kurama rumbled out from inside Naruto's mind. __**"Stop getting yourself worked up. We'll find what we find, and if you can't handle it on your own you have those stupid tadpoles of yours to help you out." **__Naruto gave the fox a mental nod, smirking slightly at the thought of Gamabunta's reaction of being called a tadpole, truly glad that he had taken the time to befriend Kurama during and after the final battles. _

Pulling himself out of his mental sewer, Naruto finally took account of his surroundings. His target island was now clearly visible, and it looked as though the seas around it formed one gigantic whirlpool. Naruto's boat suddenly jolted and emitted a rather unpleasant crunch, and he realized that he ought to have been paying far more attention. In addition to the whirlpools surrounding the island, it had extremely sturdy coral reefs to boost its natural defenses. Quickly grabbing his bag, Naruto channeled chakra to his feet just as the boat began to flood and ran across the water, whirlpools and all, to his destination, arriving as the sun prepared to set. Deciding it would be best to start searching the island in the morning, Naruto began to set up his campsite. Once everything was in place, he began his familiar meditation. Entering his Toad Sage Mode, Naruto used nature chakra to examine the area for any traces of human life. Detecting nothing out of the ordinary, the young man quickly drifted off to sleep in his tent, worried but excited for what tomorrow might bring him.

* * *

AN: As this is my first fanfiction attempt, I'm uncomfortable with how my characterizations are, especially of Naruto, Tsunade, and Hinata. The friend of mine who agreed to edit for me is only up through the Chuunin exams in Naruto, so she can't help there yet. As such, any reviews with letting me know what's out of character and all would be appreciated. This is sort of a testing the waters deal for me, so I'd like to know what anyone who comes across it thinks.


	2. Chapter 2: A New Level of Studying

A/N: So... Thing is, this chapter was actually already written two months ago when I posted the first chapter, I was just unhappy with it and then lost interest in writing this for a while. Any updates in this story will probably be as erratic as this, because I'm not going to force myself to update this story on a regular basis; I have neither the time nor the motivation for that, sorry. I'm posting this now because the mood struck me to write chapter three, so depending on whether that mood stays or not I may just end up with chapter three up by next week or so.

* * *

Naruto was shocked, to say the least. After everything he has gone through in the war, one would think he would be desensitized to carnage, but this…

He had woken at the crack of dawn the next morning, nervous but ready to explore the island. After examining the outskirts, he took a deep breath and headed toward the remains of the town, and here he had stood for at least half of an hour in shock. It was clear from the skeletons everywhere that nobody ever attempted to return after the carnage during his mother's childhood. Biting back his tears for the lost clan, HIS lost clan, Naruto made a hundred shadow clones and set them to work. Fifty left town to begin extending the cemetery on the cliff overlooking the sea towards the Land of Water, while fifty more began transporting bodies. Naruto himself slowly walked through the wrecked buildings, creating shadow clones as necessary to move fallen parts of walls and ceilings as well as ensure that the buildings he entered wouldn't collapse on him. Naruto felt his heart breaking every time he found a small skeleton clutching a doll, every time he found a site where parents tried defending their children, but he couldn't let himself cry for them. The ninja in him knew that the mission had to come first, that he needed to get this done today so that he can begin his search for information tomorrow. Shutting down his emotions, Naruto focused solely on the task at hand in complete silence. He spoke neither to his clones nor Kurama, and by mid-afternoon all of the bodies were out of town and being laid to rest. Popping all fifty clones that were working on transport, Naruto nearly vomited while examining their memories… then ran to a building near the center of town.

He had not spent much time in this building earlier, as it didn't stick out much. However, one of the clones had seen something, so Naruto returned to check it out. He slowly picked up what the clone found, and finally Naruto broke down, letting out the day's grief. In his hands was a picture of his mother before she had moved to the Leaf, as well as three other girls around her age. The picture was sun-bleached, moth-eaten, and brittle but it was still clear enough to tell. Looking on the back, Naruto saw the names of his mother's friends inked in, as well as the date the picture was taken… from what he had learned, his mother was moved to the Leaf within a month of this date, with the destruction of the Hidden Eddy Village not too long after. Focused entirely on the picture, Naruto placed a hand on the ground to help himself up. He didn't feel the pain as a rock sliced open his palm, didn't notice the blood dripping down his hand. He did, though, catch a seal array activating in the middle of the room where his blood had dripped. Jumping back to the wall, Naruto cautiously eyed the seal that was opening a portion of the floor. He slowly made his way to the newly visible spiral staircase, performing a quick fire jutsu on a piece of fallen timber to make a torch.

Recognizing that this place must have been some sort of family secret (with a one in four chance of it being HIS family secret, based on the picture), Naruto threw caution to the winds and walked down the staircase. What he found down there amazed him. Sitting in airtight display cases stretching as far as the eye could see in his makeshift torch's light were shelves upon shelves of scrolls. In awe, Naruto murmured, "There are enough scrolls here to take ten lifetimes to READ, let alone memorize, and I only have 27 weeks left until the Five Kage Summit… good thing I can fit ten lifetimes into that time." Naruto gave a halfhearted smirk and set to work creating a shadow clone per shelf, lighting the torches that adorned the outer walls on his way.

"Alright Narutos, listen up!" he shouted from the middle of the library. "It's time for us to study like we've never studied before! If we can learn all of the information here, we won't be just the strongest ninja in the world; we'll be the best seal master in it too! But ya know what? I don't think you guys are up to it. I doubt we could even get through half of this information by the time we have to go." Grinning at the resulting shouts of indignation, Naruto watched as thousands of himself set to the one thing he's never been able to stand with as much fervor as the time when he mastered the Rasengan in a week.

Naruto continued this way for three months, cramming his head with as much sealing information as possible. However, he was becoming increasingly frustrated. They had been through over three fourths of the scrolls by now, and there hasn't been any mention of a way to seal a Tailed Beast outside of the Reaper Death Seal, which had apparently originated from the Uzumakis instead of the Namikazes as commonly believed. Today, he decided to quit early… when something interesting registered in his memory banks. Going to the shelf that the clone the memories originated from was assigned to, he opened up the most recent scroll, and there it was. Naruto grinned widely… he had already perfected the first of his father's signature jutsus, why not try the second? The Flying Thunder-God space-time jutsu… it was derived from this transport seal in his hands. Naruto had retrieved one of the teleportation kunai from the final battlefield, and the seals were almost identical.

"With just a couple tweaks," Naruto mumbled, "I could make this jutsu take up a quarter of the chakra while increasing its potential range tenfold… Heck, with the right tweaks I could make it to where I can flash between any of the five great hidden villages effortlessly!" With a renewed passion, Naruto remade his clones and got back to learning. He wanted to know as much as possible now, because if he could do that much better than the Fourth Hokage, considered to be one of the greatest seal masters in the Leaf, with just 75% of the knowledge in this library, with all of it he could be the greatest seal master EVER, not just the greatest alive!

* * *

Another three weeks passed by, and Naruto finally finished going through the library. While he didn't find anything directly applicable to the Tailed Beasts, he had an idea on how to design a seal that could be perfect for his goals. In addition, he had begun to work on designing and learning his "perfected" version of the Flying Thunder-God technique. With it, it took almost no chakra for him to teleport from one side of the island to another, and he was beginning to attempt to take small animals along for the ride. While the first few mice didn't make it, he soon learned how to control the technique enough to keep it safe for them. After all, if his father could use it multiple times with a baby in tow, so could he! After the mice consistently survived, he moved up to rabbits, of which he only ended up injuring one. There were no larger animals on the island, so he was forced to limit the extent of his training with that technique there.

Finally, Naruto set the next part of his plan in motion. He intended to examine the seals used by Cloud, Mist, and Sand in attempt to incorporate their ideas into the new seal he was designing. He had debated sending a message to Rock, but nothing about their previous Jinchuriki had stood out to him. They did not have a Jinchuriki who could tame his beast, one who could maintain a position of Kage for years without contest, or one who had originally no control over his beast or himself. Naruto needed to learn from each of those sealing styles as best as he could to make a truly perfect Tailed Beast Host seal.

However, Naruto was beginning to grow impatient. Sure, he had twelve weeks left before the Five Kage Summit, but Naruto was aching to test out the extent of his new technique. Sending out messenger toads to the three villages in question with his new seals hidden inside, he resumed his usual training. Each message sent by his toads had a specific date and time inside where he said he would appear alongside the scroll, requesting that it be either alone or only with the village's respective Kage. First on the list was of the Sand, partially because their seals were the weakest and would be least likely to take the full week allotted to them, and partially because he wanted to catch up with his friend Gaara who he hadn't been able to speak with since the end of the war.

One week later, it was time for his trip to Sand. Naruto found himself taking a deep breath to calm down. While he was confident in his abilities, this was the first time he would be making a jump that was outside of his line of sight and that made him excited and nervous at the same time. Going to the Hidden Sand Village was also going to be the longest jump of this journey. Closing his eyes and focusing his chakra, Naruto made the now familiar single-handed seal. With no indication that the technique had worked outside of a sudden drop in humidity and increase in temperature, Naruto relaxed. Slowly opening his eyes, he took in his new surroundings. He was inside Gaara's office, with Gaara himself quickly recovering from the look of surprise on his face.

"Naruto Uzumaki… that was a rather sudden entrance. Would you care to explain?"

Smirking, Naruto reached out for a handshake. "It's nice to see you too, Gaara. I've just been working on one of my father's old techniques. It's rather handy, yeah? I just came from the Land of Water."

At the mention of the distance travelled, Gaara just sighed and shook the offered hand with a light smile. "There is nothing that can even slow you down anymore, is there?"

"Actually, there is. That's my excuse for dropping on by! I'm just curious, how much of your sealing libraries are available to your citizens and good friends?"

"Sealing libraries? We… do not use seals much here. We only use them for puppetry, storage and…" Gaara's eyes narrowed slightly. "Naruto, what are you planning?"

"I can't tell you just quite yet, but I will say it's going to be big. Like, Five Kage Summit big."

Gaara sighed and made a hand motion. Outside of the office, a message was formed in the sand for his guards. While Gaara and Naruto continued to catch up, Temari and Kankuro were sent to gather all of the information that the Sand had on seals effective against demons. Merely an hour later, Gaara's siblings entered the room, and were completely shocked to see Naruto.

"Not that I mind you coming to visit, Naruto, but as captain of the Sand's guard I have to ask… how on earth did you get here without myself or my guards noticing?" Kankuro sounded mildly irritated, but was just as impressed as annoyed.

"I did what any good ninja would do, I cheated!" Naruto gave Kankuro a cheery smile, then turned back to Gaara. "So Gaara, this is what you're comfortable with me reading?"

"The Sand owes you a great deal, and we no longer have any need of this information. You're welcome to keep it if you so choose."

"Naaaaah, I just need an hour or so to learn what I need from it."

"An hour?" Temari scoffed. "Not even a genius could learn this much that fast, and from what I've been told you're far from being a genius."

Naruto looked mildly insulted, then smiled. "What I lack in smarts I can more than make up in numbers! How many scrolls do you have?"

"A little less than forty, you'd have to learn at… a…" Temari just sighed when she saw eighty Narutos pop into existence outside of Gaara's window. "Fine, whatever, here." She opened the window and dumped her scrolls into the hands of the nearest Naruto, who passed them out and ordered clones to take two to a scroll. As they began to study, the original chatted with the sand siblings.

As the clones began to finish learning their scrolls and disperse, Kankuro asked, "So, last time we visited the Leaf they said you weren't there, and nobody could tell us where you had gone. What's up with that?"

"Can't say much, but I've been off somewhere doing a bit of research. You guys will learn more in a little under three months," Naruto replied with a mischievous smile. Finally, the last few clones vanished and Naruto began to piece together his new knowledge. He wasn't surprised that there wouldn't be any drastic changes to his plan, though an extra flourish he observed in one of the seals might help reinforce the mindscape barriers, preventing another berserker like Gaara. A frowning Naruto got up and examined the scroll in question. "Hey Gaara, why wasn't this added to your seal back when Shukaku started bleeding over into your mind?"

Gaara stiffened a little, and looked over the scroll. "I… do not know. It is possible that it would have been incompatible with my style of seal, or that those who designed my seal were merely ignorant of it. It is also possible that it was desired at the time for me to behave as I did. I suppose now it is impossible to find out either way."

With a curt nod, Naruto accepted his explanation and picked up the scroll embedded with the transport seal that allowed him to flash over. "Well, I need to get back to my training. Gaara, do you want this kept here? If you don't want to I get it, it IS technically a breach in security even if only I can use it."

"As much as I trust you, Naruto, I cannot afford to keep it in my office. However, may I move it to a more secure location, such as a holding cell with chakra restraining properties, so that if someone else happens upon your technique they are not immediately set up to assassinate myself or my closest advisors?"

"Fine by me, place it wherever you want. If you decide you would rather it not be in your village, just tear the scroll a little. The seal inside is set to eliminate itself if the scroll is damaged or tampered with in any way."

"That's… an alarming amount of forethought from you, Naruto. Shikamaru was always complaining about how you never think things through, but you're proving him rather wrong." Temari fixed Naruto with a mildly suspicious glare, and he sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"Since the war and how many people commended me for my quick thinking and all I've been trying to be a little smarter. Plus, I've had about 300 years of studying crammed into my head in the past couple months, as well as a few weeks just to think about how best to handle my transport seals so that everyone wins. That's enough to bring out some brains in anyone, eh?" Naruto paused for a bit, then…

"Wait, since when do you talk to Shikamaru about me? I thought you two were just forced together to work on those Chunin exams! Don't tell me you guys ARE dating after all, I thought he was going to ask Ino out?" Seeing Temari turn red and Gaara's and Kankuro's heads duck down, Naruto realized that angry Temari was in all likelihood ten times stronger and violent than angry Sakura and he had pressed exactly the wrong button. He promptly bid farewell to his friends and flashed away right as her fan was coming down on his head, narrowly avoiding a concussion and probably causing half of Gaara's office floor to need to be replaced.

* * *

Chuckling to himself, Naruto sat down in his library and created a few clones to rewrite all of the pertinent knowledge he gained from the scrolls in Suna. With his current knowledge of the sealing arts, Naruto finally felt confident enough to begin to set his plan into motion.


	3. Chapter 3: The Plan Revealed

The three weeks that followed Naruto's trip to the Hidden Sand obeyed a rather repetitive schedule. The first day of the week, he visited a village (Sand, then Cloud, then Mist), then copied what he needed into scrolls to add to his library. The next two days were spent integrating and comparing the knowledge he gained from them with the knowledge from the Uzumaki library. Finally, he would spend the following four days of the week experimenting with shadow clones to test the potential they had when it came to sealing chakra constructs and the effects on those constructs. By the time he finished this testing, Naruto was beginning to feel pressured. With only eight weeks remaining until the Five Kage Summit, his plans still had a long way to go.

With the help of Kurama, Naruto began to draft nine complex seals. While at a base level they all served the same function, each seal was tailored to each of the nine Tailed Beasts specifically. Days flew by as at least twenty-seven Narutos were working around the clock trying to get the seal drafts closer to perfect than would be humanly possible for most. Finally, four days before the Five Kage Summit was slated to begin, the ninth seal was completed.

Sighing, Naruto pulled his consciousness into his mindscape. "Kurama, is this how you really want this to happen? I really think that we could find a better way to ensure that the Ten-Tails is impossible to resurrect."

**"While I am sure that we could find another way given enough time, it is possible that in the time we take to find one someone will attempt to follow the Uchiha scum's example. This is a path I am certain will work, and at the end of the day will grant all nine of my kind our freedom permanently. Why the hesitation? We've worked this hard already, and you did make a promise that we would never allow the Tailed Beasts to recombine. Don't tell me you're thinking about going back on your word?" **Ending in a mocking tone, the gigantic fox gave what could only be considered a smirk to Naruto.

Scoffing, Naruto replied, "Oh shut it you ten story high furball, I was just worried about you. Fine, we'll swap out our seal to make sure it works before presenting them at the Summit." Pulling himself back into the real world, Naruto created two shadow clones to change his seal from the one his father made to his new invention. The process took two days in itself due to how slow the clones were forced to work, for if they worked too fast the old seal might have given out killing both Naruto and Kurama. At the end of the seal transfer, Naruto slept for another full day to recover from the stress on his body.

* * *

"I hereby call this session of the Five Kage Summit to order. Lady Hokage, in the request you sent you stated that you had highly important information about the Tailed Beasts that needed to be discussed. Please share your piece," Mifune stated as he took his seat.

"I do not have the entire story yet, as one of my most important men is still putting together some of the pieces. However, I was informed that the seven Tailed Beasts that were fully absorbed by the Ten Tails are for some reason regenerating at an unprecedented rate. From the way it appears, all seven will be back in this world by the end of the year."

As she expected, this received surprised gasps from Gaara, Onoki, and Mei as well as a grunt of acknowledgement from Ay. The Raikage then spoke up, "Bee has already informed me of this. I saw no reason to mention it, for the Hidden Cloud intended on retrieving our Two Tails and letting the rest of the beasts be redistributed as your First Hokage deemed fit."

To the surprise of all six leaders present, a young blonde man casually walked into the room at the end of the Raikage's statement. "While I have no problem with the Land of Lightning keeping Matatabi, there is a major issue with your statement. All seven of the Tailed Beasts that will be reforming will hold a substantial amount of Kurama's chakra, which I will need to reclaim before any of the Tailed Beasts may be resealed."

"Ah, Naruto. How nice of you to show up late to the conference you asked me to call on your behalf…" Tsunade murmured in a dangerous tone as Naruto came to stand next to her.

Grinning sheepishly, he murmured back, "Sorry, but I got caught up in some tests I was running and lost track of time." To the summit as a whole, Naruto spoke up. "Over the past seven months, I have been learning about the Tailed Beasts and the sealing arts. I can with confidence say that I am the most knowledgeable sealing master alive, and I have a proposition for a change in how the Tailed Beasts are sealed within their partners. I have designed specialized seals for each of the nine Tailed Beasts with a variety of functions. The most interesting to all of you, I'm sure, is the Demonic Energy Conversion seal. This was designed to gradually convert the chakra from a Tailed Beast into human chakra permanently. There is no way for this chakra to be added back in to the Tailed Beast, and no way for the Tailed Beast to regain what was absorbed. I designed it like this so that it will be forever impossible for the Ten Tails to be reformed after the first of the Tailed Beasts reaches a small enough chakra level, which I believe should take 45 years for Shukaku."

As expected, this did not go over well with the Raikage and Tsuchikage, who viewed their Jinchuriki as invaluable military assets and little else. Holding up a hand to slow their protests, Naruto continued. "However, even though the Tailed Beasts will eventually be too small to be worth sealing as weapons, these seals are designed to integrate the previously demonic energy and abilities into the genetic code of the person who received the seal. As such, the abilities that the Jinchuriki of the past have received such as Shukaku's sand control, Son Goku's lava style, or Kurama's healing factor will become genetic traits, as will the inordinately large chakra reserves gained by the absorbance of the Tailed Beasts. In this way, when the Tailed Beasts are no longer worth sealing the village in question will possess a new bloodline that has even more military potential than a single Jinchuriki ever had.

"With everything I just told you all in mind, I have a request. Allow me to select those most suited to be partners of the Tailed Beasts out of your Jounin, and permit me to do the seven sealings. Then, with the permission of the Raikage the new hosts could undergo training at Turtle Rock Island under Bee so that they may learn how to be proper partners with their Tailed Beasts, making it so that nobody would ever have anything to fear from them. As payment for allowing the new hosts to train at Turtle Rock Island with Bee, I will convert Bee's seal to the new seal type, allowing the absorption of Gyuuki to begin now instead of being forced to wait until Bee's death. I was expecting the Tailed Beasts to be distributed as they were by the First Hokage, with the Leaf keeping Kurama and Choumei, the Sand keeping Shukaku, the Mist keeping Isobu and Saiken, the Stone keeping Son Goku and Kokuo, and the Cloud keeping Matatabi and Gyuuki. Does anyone have any objections to this plan?"

Shortly after detailing his ideas, Naruto ended up falling asleep. He was still exhausted from the seal transfer, and to him it sounded like the only thing the Kages disagreed on was how wholeheartedly they supported his idea. After enduring a half hour of bickering and sleeping through another hour of it, Tsunade finally woke him to inform him that all five of them had agreed to his terms, though they had agreed that they needed confirmation that his new seals would work. Naruto grinned and stood up, moving to the center of the horseshoe shaped table.

"Alright everyone, if you need to see my new amazing seals in action then just place a hand on me and match our chakra wavelengths. I actually switched out my old seal for my new design three days ago, so I can show you what the new seal for Kurama looks like."

When all five Kages and Mifune rested hands on Naruto's shoulders, he concentrated and pulled them all into his seal. All were shocked at what they saw, but none were more so than Tsunade.

"Naruto, I thought you told me the seal space was a cold, dark sewer?"

"It used to be. This is one of the other functions I added into the seal that I didn't feel you guys would care too much about, I personalized each of the nine seals to include the Tailed Beasts' favorite habitats so that they wouldn't be so miserable in here." Grinning at his handiwork, Naruto nearly laughed when he saw a twenty foot tall hare being chased around by Kurama. No longer was the seal an imposing gate trapping his fox partner in the darkness behind it. Now, the seal was a sunny meadow with wildlife of all types and sizes with Kurama leashed to an odd-looking stone in the center. "Now, you can all see the demonic chakra running through his leash into the stone there? That stone is the energy converter. It takes in Kurama's energy at a very slow rate so it doesn't hurt either of us, and gradually gives his power to me permanently. I'm not fully supportive of the idea, though, it was his. He said he'd rather do this than be controlled or forced into the Ten Tails again, and I promised I would help him in any way I can… So, are you all happy with what you see?" Naruto was clearly proud of his accomplishments, and all six present felt he had a right to be. Justifiably impressed, the five Kages and Mifune were forced outside of the seal by Naruto.

"Now that you're all on board, I need to explain what kind of hosts these seals will need. First of all, their chakra systems can't have ANY deformities at all. From my research on them, the slightest deformity in the chakra system can lead to overdraining the Tailed Beast, which will cause extreme pain to both and chakra poisoning to the host. Granny Tsunade, for this reason I'll need to have a Hyuga with me when I meet the prospective hosts. Is that okay?" At an irritated nod from the Hokage, Naruto continued. "Second, I refuse to seal a Tailed Beast into a child. Whether the people's views on hosts have changed or not, I will not let any other kid risk the life Gaara or I had. Because of this, I'll only be able to use people who have far above average chakra levels. I would recommend you order any possible hosts to start exclusively training their chakra reserves, because the seal won't quite work right if you don't have at least 2% of the chakra the beast sealed in you has. While this isn't quite an issue for some of the beasts, I do see some problems happening with Kokuo, Sakei, and Choumei, as well as Kurama and Gyuuki in the future. Finally, I don't want to seal any of the Tailed Beasts into someone with a heart filled with negative emotions. To avoid that, I want to examine the emotions of all of your possible candidates and be able to pick which ones I feel are best suited to work well with their Tailed Beast partners. Is that alright with you guys?"

The Mizukage spoke up in an annoyed tone, "What makes you feel that you're better at judging the character of our men than we are?"

Naruto rested a hand on his stomach, then suddenly turned orange with a long cloak behind them. "Well, you guys all remember my bright orange Nine-Tailed Chakra Mode I used against the Zetsus, right? In it I can sense all of the emotions of those around me. Even the greatest actors in the world can't hide anything from me, which is why I was the only one capable of rooting out all of the white Zetsus. This would make me perfect for deciding who could be best suited for being a partner to a Tailed Beast, because I'll be able to decide based on their hearts directly."

At this point, Tsunade spoke up. "Naruto has given us all a lot to think about. In one weeks' time, I will have him contact each of you individually to receive your final answers. Naruto, do you know when exactly the Tailed Beasts will be reforming?"

"Kurama and I can't pin down exact dates, but we both feel it will be very soon. It's seems that Shukaku will be reformed within the next month, and it feels like after he reforms we'll have at least one of them reforming a week. All things considered, it should all be over before the next three months are up."

Mifune then spoke up, giving off an air of finality with his words. "Very well. Are you all agreed, then? Final answers will be given to Naruto when his messengers arrive in one week. Regardless of whether you accept or refuse his more than generous offers, he will need to be present during the sealing of all of the Tailed Beasts to siphon off the chakra of the Nine Tails, Kurama, as well as trap any residual chakra from the Eight Tails, Gyuuki, to be turned over to Killer Bee after it is finished. Does anyone have any concerns on this course of action or any other pressing matters to discuss?" When none of the Kage spoke up, Mifune called the summit to an end.

* * *

"So, brat, what all have you spent the last seven months doing?" Naruto, Tsunade, and her two Anbu guards were walking back to the Leaf at a leisurely pace as Tsunade asked this.

"Oh, nothing too far out of the ordinary. Just cramming about four hundred years of studying into my brain, visiting three of the four other Great Shinobi Villages to obtain information on sealing, perfecting the Flying Thunder God technique to the point where only _slightly_ above average people can use it if I choose to teach them… it was just a pretty standard training trip for me." Putting his hands behind his head Naruto smirked, then started outright laughing at the look on Tsunade's face. "Hey Granny, you might want to close your mouth, at your age you might just choke to death on any flies you'd catch."

One super-punch later, Naruto was a mile down the road waiting for Tsunade and her guards to catch up. The next four days of walking passed in a similar manner, and finally the gates of the Village Hidden in the Leaves were in sight.

As they were on the final stretch of the journey, Naruto thought it might be a good time to hash out the details of his plan with the Hokage. "Granny, have you given any thought as to who you want to accompany me to examine the potential hosts and who you want for the host of Choumei?"

"I think I have the perfect Hyuga in mind for you, but I'm not certain who we should pick to host this… Choumei, was it? I'm assuming that one is the Seven-Tailed Horned Beatle?"

"Yep! My research on him indicates he'd be happiest with a water- or wind-natured host, and someone who isn't bothered by insects. Its former Jinchuriki from the Village Hidden in the Waterfalls supposedly had extremely tough to break skin as a result of its ambient chakra, sorta like Kurama giving me this healing factor thing. Also, its two-tailed state lets the host FLY! How cool would that be?"

"Hmm… Sounds like an Aburame would be the best bet, and if none of them work then perhaps a teammate of one? I'll go through the rosters and double-check all of their elemental affinities to see who I come up with." Tsunade began sorting through the list in her head and fell quiet as the group reached the gates, but then Naruto spoke up again.

"Hey… Granny? When will I have to leave to take care of all of this? I still need to train a bit on my Flying Thunder God skills before I'm ready to be teleporting people around, and before I left on my little training and research escapade I promised someone I'd take her on a date whenever I had the time."

Tsunade just laughed. "Don't worry, kiddo, I'll let you have time to take Hinata out." Seeing the surprised look on his face, she began laughing harder. "You thought I wouldn't find out about it? The poor girl has been coming to visit me weekly asking if I knew when you would be back. She seemed to be under the impression that you'd be making it back before the Summit."

At that, Naruto grimaced. "I didn't mean to let her down, it's just that there was a lot more than I expected to be able to find in the Village Hidden in the Eddies. I had thought about sending her a letter but I didn't really know what to say…"

Ruffling his hair lightly, Tsunade gave him a light shove towards the training grounds. "She should be out training now, and you have permission to tell your friends about your next mission. I'll need to make the formal announcement soon enough, so it won't be any sort of secret soon enough. You're to send out messenger toads to the other four villages to arrive in three days, and until then you're free to do as you please."

Thanking Tsunade, Naruto sped off towards the training grounds. When he reached the usual spot for Kurenai-sensei's old team, he found Shino and Kiba in a heated spar. Deciding to have a little fun with them before learning where Hinata is, Naruto made a shadow clone. Transforming himself into Guy-sensei and the clone into Lee, both gave a running leap towards the sparring pair.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" Shino managed to just barely dodge the Lee-clone, but Kiba was not quite that fortunate. Catching a rather strong kick to the face, he went flying backwards and smashed into a tree around a hundred yards away. "Uh…. Too much?" Naruto asked embarrassedly before dropping the transformation and dispelling the clone.

"I am certain Kiba will be fine. His head appears to be much harder than the average person's. It is nice to see you have returned, Naruto. Was your mission a success?" Shino's regular monotone voice seemed to have a touch of amusement in it as he stated this, and Naruto was flabbergasted.

"Shino… was that a joke? I think that's the first joke I've ever heard from you! I'm so proud of you, buddy!" Faking wiping away a tear of happiness, Naruto laughed a little when Shino shifted embarrassedly. "Yeah, my mission was a big success, and it looks like all of my hard work is going to work out nicely. I just got back from the Five Kage Summit, where I had to give the report on my mission to all five Kages at once. In three days I should be getting the green lights for the final part of my mission."

Shino adjusted his glasses inquisitively. "Final part of your mission?"

"Oh, that seven month mission was actually just a type of a requirement to be taken care of before the actual mission, which I think will take the next three months or so," Naruto grimaced. "Hey, that reminds me why I came here! I needed to apologize to Hinata for not being able to end my mission early like I promised her I would try to, do you know where she is?"

"I believe she told us she would be working on improving her original Gentle Fist technique and attempting to create another. She usually does such efforts at a small waterfall roughly two miles in that direction." Shino made a small gesture. "However, she requests that we do not come near when she is practicing like that, therefore I am unsure as to how she would react to your presence."

"Thanks for the warning, I'll make sure she knows I'm coming before I get there so she can tell me to go away if she wants!" Grinning, Naruto took off in the direction Shino pointed just as Kiba regained his consciousness.

Following Naruto's path out of the clearing with his eyes, Kiba grumbled, "Disappears for over half of a year, knocks me out, and doesn't let me have a word in edgewise. Just who the hell does Naruto think he is nowadays?" Kiba pouted a bit before Shino sent a fist sized ball of beetles to attack him, reinitiating their spar.

* * *

In Naruto's mind, Shino's warning was just a friendly heads up. He didn't really think Hinata would be too frustrated with him showing up and surprising her in her training, so as he drew close to the waterfall Shino told him she would be at he took to moving silently through the trees. After catching a glimpse of her performing what looked more like a dance move than an attack on the surface of the water, Naruto called out to her and jumped to the ground. When she screamed, Naruto was puzzled… until he noticed her clothing… fifteen feet away on the bank of the pond. In that moment Naruto finally understood how Hinata had felt like every time she had fainted around him, because for the first time in his life Naruto Uzumaki passed out from embarrassment.


	4. Chapter 4: What Else Could Go Wrong?

**Chapter Four: What Else Could Go Wrong?**

Naruto collapsed on his bed with his head in his hands. He felt miserable, but not for himself. He had truly wanted his and Hinata's first date to be spectacular and memorable, and he supposed that this fit the bill in some way. After all, he was sure it was an amusing spectacle to some and she was sure to remember it as the worst date in the history of mankind. He slowly thought over the night, thinking of every place he went wrong and berating himself rather thoroughly.

* * *

Hinata gave a happy sigh as she fell back onto her bed from the… rather _eventful_ date. Sure, nothing seemed to go the way Naruto had planned it, but she couldn't help but be beside herself with excitement. The date may not have been an ideal one to other women, but for Hinata it had the only thing required to make it absolutely perfect – Naruto's attention was entirely focused on her and making her happy. Thinking back to the start of the day, she blushed brightly at the thought of his attention focused on her in a different light, as well.

* * *

The Date Gone Wrong Flashback 1:

When Naruto came to from his impromptu and accidental peek and fainting, he noticed a fully clothed Hinata sitting timidly a few feet away from arm's length to his left. Immediately flushing, Naruto began speaking at a breakneck pace, "Hinata-I'm-so-sorry-I-should've-listened-to-Shino -please-forgive-me-I-didn't-mean-to-see-you-naked- and-I'm-sorry-I-fainted-on-you-before-explaining-m yself-but-you-looked-so-beautiful-and-I-was-caught -off-guard-and-I'm-sorry-and-please-don't-hit-me?" 

Hinata, thankfully, was listening intently and caught every word he said… up until he called her beautiful. At that point, she felt her face heat up to an alarming degree, with only one thought bouncing through her head; _"Naruto really thinks I'm beautiful?"_

Hinata took a slow breath to regain her composure, and Naruto instantly felt he was a goner. _"Oh great, now she's trying to calm down enough so she only maims me instead of killing me! Look at how red her face is, I don't think I've ever made anyone that red-faced in anger before!"_

Contrary to his fears, when Hinata regained her composure and the blush faded she just smiled lightly and said, "I-it's okay, Naruto, I should have told Shino and Kiba more about the type of t-training I was doing, I was just afraid that K-Kiba might try to peek. It's mostly my fault, I-I'm the one who's sorry."

"Really? I'm the one who barged in without announcing myself first, I really think it's my fault… ANYWAY! I wanted to apologize for not being able to make it back before now, my research was harder to complete than I thought. I was wondering if you'd like to have that date tonight? I'm going to be leaving on another long-term mission kinda soon, and I would really like to take you out before I have to go." Naruto looked at her hopefully, until the image of her nude form invaded his thoughts and he blushed and turned away.

Taking his blush and refusal to meet his eyes as nervousness, Hinata felt like it fell to her to be the brave one here. She hesitantly scooted to his side and placed a hand on his shoulder, taking a deep breath and forcing herself to not stutter. "I would really like that, Naruto. I need to train for a bit longer, but you could pick me up at the gates of the Hyuga compound at six tonight?"

All other thoughts flew out of his head as he grabbed her hand and very nearly shouted, "That would be awesome, Hinata! I'll see you then! I'll let you get back to your… uh… training…" His face went from ecstatic to embarrassed as he trailed off, but then shrugged it away and gave her a brief but tight hug and fled the scene. Once he was out of earshot and Byakugan range, Naruto started berating himself for his stupidity. He was certain she hated him now for barging in on her like that, but he would do his best to make it up to her tonight.

* * *

Naruto sighed and stood to change out of what used to be brand new clothing he had bought just for this date. The pale orange dress shirt was still rather muddy on the back, and the pantlegs of the slacks he had purchased were torn and dirty. He had tried so hard to look nice for Hinata, but just like every other effort he had made it was thwarted by his own idiocy and lack of attention to his surroundings. Sure, in the midst of a battle he had some of the best instincts out of any good ninja, but when distracted by the thoughts of his date with a woman as pretty as Hinata? He had no sense of his surroundings whatsoever.

* * *

Hinata gave a tiny giggle as she observed the state of the flowers Naruto had given her at the start of the date. Just like everything else that night, it hadn't gone perfectly, but it showed that he _cared_ about her and nothing could make her more ecstatic. Searching through the bouquet, she noticed something that gave her a very good feeling about their future. Amidst the muddy, ruined flowers there were two that were still in pristine condition, as perfect as they had been when they were cut, with one exception; the stems were lightly wound around each other, joining them tightly. The single bright orange sunflower and pale lavender rose that had been the centerpieces of the bouquet had survived the tumultuous night and were standing tall in their vase.

* * *

The Date Gone Wrong Flashback 2:

Naruto was getting excited. He had purchased new clothes in hopes of making a good impression, combed his hair, even brushed up on an old academy textbook on etiquette in preparation for his date, but he knew something was missing. As six o'clock approached, it finally hit him. Flowers! Girls LOVED flowers! Rushing to the Yamanaka Flower Shop at a quarter 'til six, he caught Ino right as she was about to close it up for the night.

"INO! Please, wait up! I need a HUGE favor!"

Taking in his appearance, the self-entitled Gossip Queen of the Leaf knew she would hit a gold mine if Naruto could explain his appearance and why he looked so classy, especially for him! Giving him a warm smile she said, "And what can I do for you, handsome?"

Naruto gave a light blush. "You think I look handsome? I've got a big date tonight, I didn't go overboard, did I? OH! Can't get sidetracked! I need your help! I need to get flowers quickly for my date in…. fifteen minutes. I don't know anything about flowers, all I know is I want your brightest orange flower and your most beautiful lavender flower in the center. Can you help me?"

Ino gave a light hum as she browsed through the plants lining the walls, carefully selecting flowers from various buckets and arranging them neatly for him. "Here you go, our brightest orange sunflower, our most beautiful lavender rose, and five other flower types surrounding them that represent happiness and budding love. So, who's the lucky young lady?"

Grinning and handing over the money for the flowers, Naruto happily replied, "Hinata! Why else would I ask for a lavender flower? I needed something to match her eyes!" Taking off at a high speed while carefully clutching the flowers to his chest, Naruto sped to the Hyuga compound. Arriving three minutes early, he waiting hesitantly in front of the gates, flowers held behind his back. Suddenly, Naruto stiffened. Approaching him with a regal air about him was the worst nightmare of any prospective boyfriend to the Hyuga heiress; leader of the Hyuga Clan and father of Hinata, Hiashi Hyuga.

"Uzumaki. Let me make one thing clear to you before my daughter arrives. She has cared for you for a long time, and while I may not have been an ideal father I am loathe to see her hurt, especially by a boy. Should I find that on this date Hinata was harmed physically or emotionally, war hero or not your corpse will never be found. Are we understood?"

Naruto was nervous, but held his ground. Thanking his foresight in reviewing that etiquette book, he gave a light bow. "Lord Hyuga, I would never intentionally harm your daughter. She has saved my life before, and her kind words mean the world to me. I swear that if she is hurt in any way on our date I will do everything in my power to fix the pain I have caused her."

Seemingly assured, Hiashi gave a slight nod and retreated to his compound. Right after he disappeared from view, Hinata exited one of the buildings. Completely dumbstruck at her beauty in her pale lavender kimono and light makeup, Naruto didn't hear the warning shout. Suddenly bowled over by what appeared to be a white and brown blur, Naruto fell backwards into a large swath of mud. While he could have dealt with this, he realized with a shocked expression that the flowers were still hidden behind him. Pulling out the ruined bouquet, he was about to start shouting at the top of his lungs and kick whoever knocked him over's ass when Hinata came running up to him.

"Naruto? Are you okay? That fall looked like it could have hurt!"

Giving her a sad smile, he just stood and held out the ruined flowers. "I'm fine, but… the flowers I got for you… I'm so sorry, Hinata." Naruto performed a quick water jutsu to pull the moisture out of his clothes, but the damage had already been done. The back of his shirt and pants were covered in dirt stains.

Hinata just smiled like he had given her the whole world. "Y-you bought me flowers? Thank you! Here, let me put them away before we go out!" Hinata scurried back inside to place the flowers nearly reverently in a vase. However, Naruto had merely assumed she was just being polite and off to throw them away. Watching her disappear into the compound again, Naruto turned towards whoever it was that knocked him over, just to see a dumbstruck Kiba and Akamaru happily wagging his tail. In unison, the boys shouted,

"You're going on a date with HINATA?"

"YOU almost ruined my date with Hinata!"

"Seriously. She agreed to go out with a complete moron like you? I must have asked her out twenty times and she wasn't interested! What the hell do you have that I don't?"

That was a severe blow to Naruto's confidence. Despite his vaunted battle status, Naruto was well aware that he wasn't nearly as socially acceptable as his friend was. A dark look crossed his face as Naruto said, "I honestly don't know, but please scram before she gets back. I really want to make this perfect for her, and running into her teammates right at the beginning doesn't scream romance."

Despite his previous belligerence, Kiba was a loyal friend and knew that a date with her nigh on lifelong crush would mean the world to Hinata, so he just huffed and walked off. However, Naruto was even more nervous than before. Hurriedly attempting to scrape off all of the dried mud along his back, Naruto both impatiently and fearfully waited Hinata's return, dreading that it would be accompanied by the news that he wasn't good enough for her.

* * *

After changing into his nightclothes, Naruto pulled out poor old Gama-chan. The toad had slimmed down a fair bit across the night, but Naruto hadn't minded that much. No, what he minded were the slips of paper he had added over the course of the night: one ticket to a movie, a receipt to Ichiraku Ramen, and the receipt to a small out-of-the-way ice cream parlor. Scowling at the three pieces, he yet again cursed his luck.

* * *

Hinata had changed out of her fancier clothing for the date, and was now emptying her small purse from the night. She had decided before it started that she wanted a souvenir from every place they visited on their date, and she couldn't be happier with the results. She had her ticket to the amusing and slightly... perverse, she thought with a blush, romantic comedy they saw, her pair of chopsticks from dining at Ichiraku's, and the brand new handkerchief of Naruto's that she had ruined while eating at the quaint ice cream parlor after a little accident. Smiling once more at her new treasures, she sat on her bed with a goofy grin as she recalled the night.

* * *

The Date Gone Wrong Flashback 3:

After the fiasco outside of the Hyuga Compound, Naruto was more than eager to get away from the place. Deciding the best place to start their date would be the theater, Naruto asked if that was alright with Hinata. Upon receiving an enthusiastic yes, he held her hand and they walked there making light conversation. Naruto noticed that Hinata seemed to be stuttering less and speaking up more… though for some reason, her face just couldn't lose that redness. He dearly hoped this was a good sign, because nothing else seemed to be going right today. When they arrived at the theaters, they saw that the premier film tonight was "A Date on the Battlefield", a romantic comedy claiming to be written and acted by ninjas for ninjas. When Naruto asked Hinata which film she wanted to see, she thought it sounded interesting. However, Naruto was soon voicing some disagreement with her choice. During the opening credits, a certain line sent off warning bells: **"Based on the late Lord Jiraiya's fifth work, Tales of a Ninja's Romance"**.

"Hinata," Naruto whispered, "I don't think we should be watching this movie… the pervy sage didn't write very many decent books…"

Hinata just lightly smiled at him. "Why don't you give it a try? If it was good enough for them to make into a film I'm sure it's good enough for us to watch."

Of course, Hinata was proven wrong quite shortly. The majority of the movie was, as Naruto expected, sex scenes. As they watched, Naruto and Hinata tended to alternate between deep blushes and pale, shocked faces with the occasional whisper of "How is that even possible?!" to each other. To make things worse for Naruto, his mind kept trying to replace the women on screen with Hinata, making him even more nervous around her than earlier. By the time the movie was over, Naruto was feeling far too awkward to grab Hinata's hand again. Instead of trying, he just walked next to her with his hands in his pockets.

"Hey, uh… Hinata? I made reservations at the Silver Hare if you'd like to go there."

Her face lit up in surprise. The Silver Hare was a rather high end restaurant, and was rather difficult to get in to. For him to go to such lengths MUST mean something, right? Thus, she was beside herself the whole walk over and was so happy that _she_ grabbed _his_ hand, not the other way around… though her face was blushing to a point almost as glowing as her smile.

However, once again things refused to go Naruto's way. When they arrived at the restaurant, the greeter looked at Naruto with some slight disdain.

"Uzumaki, I was informed that if you were not meeting our restaurant's dress code I was not to allow you inside. Perhaps you should come back another day when you decide to not play in the mud?"

Naruto's face scrunched up in anger, but before he could yell at the man Hinata rested a hand on his arm. "N-Naruto, it's okay. Why don't we go to Ichiraku's? You a-always love it there and I do like ramen."

"Are you sure? I really wanted to take you someplace nice…" Naruto looked down at his feet.

Hinata just smiled. "Every place would be nice for me so long as it's with you," she murmured as she led them off to Ichiraku's. After a quiet few bowls of ramen, they left for a walk in the park… only for it to begin to rain down heavily on them. Ducking out of the rain in the closest open shop, Naruto and Hinata found themselves in an ice cream parlor. Thinking his luck had turned around, Naruto took the opportunity to buy them some ice cream, and they sat down to eat and wait for the rain to end while they talked. When Naruto finally noticed it subsiding, he gestured to the window to point it out to her, and ended up knocking what was left of Hinata's ice cream into her lap, staining her fancy clothing.

"Hinata! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to! Here!" Naruto gave her a handkerchief so she could go to the restroom and wipe most of it off. When she returned, he was apologizing profusely and gave her the rest of his ice cream.

* * *

Naruto sighed sadly and turned off his lights, preparing to go to sleep. As unconsciousness overtook him, his last thought was, _"I hope she doesn't hate me after that terrible date."_

* * *

Hinata sighed happily as she turned off her lights and curled up in her comforter. As she fell asleep, her last thought was, _"I hope Naruto likes me enough to take me on another date as wonderful as tonight was."_

* * *

The next day, Naruto woke to a messenger from Tsunade knocking on his door. Apparently, he was needed for meetings for the majority of the day. When he arrived, he found a sight that gave him an instant headache; the elder advisor duo were practically screaming at Tsunade attempting to force her hand in some matter. Naruto decided to help the Hokage out, in his own little way.

"Y'know, I think I must be mistaken here. For a minute there I would have sworn that I heard two mere advisors to the Hokage trying to make demands of her."

"Thank you, Naruto. Elders, I have already made my decision. Stop wasting my time with your senseless babble and get the hell out of my office, NOW!"

After the antiques scurried away, Naruto asked, "So, Granny, what did you need me for?"

"Tomorrow you're sending out the letters requesting for acceptance to this plan of yours. Today, we need to draft the letters, confirm our potential host for the Seven-Tails is viable, and finalize your team. The host prospect is coming at one, and your two teammates should be here at 12:30. That leaves us with a little over two hours to draft these letters."

Two hours later, Naruto and Tsunade signed the fourth letter and Sakura popped in. "Lady Tsunade, I apologize for interrupting but you called me to be here in around ten minutes?"

"Ah, yes, come in Sakura. You, Naruto, and one other will be receiving a new long-term mission today. Your third member will be here soon, so we can just relax until then."

Hinata, who was approaching the opened door at the time, froze. _"A long-term mission with N-Naruto? Oh, whatdoIdo, whatdoIdo, whatdoIdo?"_

"While we wait… Sakura, I need your help," Naruto said in a more somber tone.

"Naruto? What's wrong?" she replied.

"Well… It was my date with Hinata…"

Outside the door, our pale-eyed eavesdropper gasped as tears sprung to her eyes. _"He didn't like it? He doesn't like me? He doesn't want to go on another date with me…?_

"Everything went wrong last night! I bought new clothes so we could go to a fancy restaurant, and they got muddy because Kiba knocked me over! I bought her flowers, but they ended up getting destroyed to the point where she probably just threw them all away because of that fall! I took her out to the movies, and it turns out the movie we picked was based off of one of Pervy Sage's pervy books, and now she probably thinks I'm as big of a pervert as he is! When we GOT to the fancy restaurant, we got turned away because my clothes were dirty! We had to eat at Ichiraku's for a first date for crying out loud! And then we wanted to go for a walk in the park, and it started pouring, so we went for ice cream, and I messed it up AGAIN by making her spill hers all over herself! She probably hates me and doesn't want to see me again by now because I'm such a screw-up!"

Naruto's voice sounded more defeated than Hinata had ever heard it. This time, tears of happiness were in her eyes as she rushed into the room and pulled him into a very tight hug.

"N-Naruto, I thought our date was p-perfect. Really, I don't think last night could have been any better."

Naruto was stunned, to say the least. Here he was on the edge of tears for being such a colossal failure, and Hinata was telling him things went perfectly? "Y-you really think so, Hinata?"

Tsunade gave a light cough, and the couple looked up to see her smirking and Sakura trying to hide her giggles. In a flash, Naruto and Hinata were seated on opposite sides of Sakura, both blushing like mad.

"Now that our little teen drama soap opera has ended, why don't we get to business? Naruto, Hinata and Sakura will be your team on this mission of yours. Hinata will be both a scout and your Hyuga you needed to examine potential hosts. Sakura will be making sure all of your hosts will be physically fit and able to handle the strain on their bodies, as well as functioning as your personal medic."

At this, Naruto gave a pout. "Personal medic? Granny, I don't need a personal medic, I'm fine on my own!"

"Naruto, you are going to be fighting the Tailed Beasts for crying out loud!" This elicited a gasp from both Hinata and Sakura. "I would have to be insane to be sending you out to a battle like that without someone to keep you healthy."

"N-N-Naruto is g-going to be fighting the T-Tailed Beasts?" Hinata stammered out in a shocked tone.

"Heh… yeah, that's what my last seven month mission was for. I was out on a training mission to learn the sealing arts well enough to be able to create new seals for the Tailed Beasts. Here in a few weeks, they're going to start reforming, and I'm one of the few people who can actually subdue them safely. Our mission is to go out and reseal all seven of them that pop up in the next few months, stripping away the chakra of Kurama and Gyuuki as we go along. Don't worry, you two won't have to do any of the real fighting, Kurama and I can easily take down all of the ones we'll have to fight. All I'll need from you to is help selecting the hosts. So, you two in?"

Sakura just shook her head and sighed. "Always one battle after the next with you, Naruto. Sure, I can already tell you're going to need me to bail you out at some point."

Hinata, on the other hand, started fiddling with her fingers and looked down, a habit she had believed she had long since grown out of. "N-Naruto, are you sure you want me along? I… I'm not sure I could be very helpful…"

"Hinata, of course I want you to come! Your skill with the Byakugan is amazing, and I've seen you fight the Ten-Tails fearlessly, you'll do fine!"

Blushing at his praise, Hinata smiled a little and accepted. Just then, one o'clock arrived and Choumei's prospective host arrived.

* * *

A/N: Spoilers for the latest manga chapter (651, I think) here…

DAYUM that combo attack. Kurama-Sage-Susano'o mode Konoha 12 Rasengan Barrage of kickassery and bisected Tobito ftw. Does this mean the war is FINALLY over? Or will more crap fall down to extend it pointlessly again?


End file.
